The present invention generally relates to a card connector, and more particularly to a card connector with reliable surface mounting structure.
Electrical cards are widely used in electrical devices for storing information. A card connector is used for interconnecting the electrical card with an electrical device or an electronic component. A related conventional card connector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11066247. The card connector includes a housing and a plurality of terminals received in the housing. The housing has a card-receiving recess and a plurality of terminals receiving channels. Each of the terminals includes a mounting portion retained in the channels, a contacting portion extending into the card-receiving recess for electrically contacting a card, and a tail portion for being surface mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB).
However, the card inserted into or withdrawn from the card connector will exert forces on the contacting portions of the terminals along the card-insertion direction. Since the portion of the housing which securely receives the terminals is resilient in nature, the forces will be transferred to the tail portions of the terminals, subjecting the tail portion surfaces mounted on the PCB to a great portion of the force encountered during insertion and withdrawal of the card. Under such circumstances, the surface mounting structure is easy to break down after repeated use.
Hence, a reliable surface mounting, structure is needed to overcome the foregoing problems.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a card connector with reliable terminal mounting structure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low profile card connector.
The card connector according to the present invention includes a shell, a transverse base mounted in the shell, and a plurality of terminals molded in the transverse base. The shell defines a card-receiving cavity for receiving a card therein. Each terminal includes a planar mounting portion molded in the transverse base, a contact portion projecting into the card-receiving cavity for being horizontally exerted on by the card during its insertion, and a tail portion for being surface mounted to a circuit board. At least one of the terminals has a dip leg projecting out of the transverse base for being secured to the printed circuit. The card connector further has an ejector to facilitate an ejection of a card and a write-protect switch contact and a full-insertion switch contact to respectively detect write-protect and full-insertion of the card.
Other objects, advantages and novel feather of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.